netdev - Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all architectures

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Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.999.0708171358520.3666@enigma.security.iitk.ac.in>
Date:	Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:17:36 +0530 (IST)
From:	Satyam Sharma <satyam@...radead.org>
To:	Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@...oo.com.au>
cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
	Segher Boessenkool <segher@...nel.crashing.org>,
	heiko.carstens@...ibm.com, horms@...ge.net.au,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	rpjday@...dspring.com, ak@...e.de, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	cfriesen@...tel.com, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	jesper.juhl@...il.com, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org, zlynx@....org,
	clameter@....com, schwidefsky@...ibm.com,
	Chris Snook <csnook@...hat.com>,
	Herbert Xu <herbert.xu@...hat.com>, davem@...emloft.net,
	wensong@...ux-vs.org, wjiang@...ilience.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all
 architectures

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007, Nick Piggin wrote:

> Satyam Sharma wrote:
> 
> > #define atomic_read_volatile(v)				\
> > 	({						\
> > 		forget((v)->counter);			\
> > 		((v)->counter);				\
> > 	})
> > 
> > where:
> 
> *vomit* :)

I wonder if this'll generate smaller and better code than _both_ the
other atomic_read_volatile() variants. Would need to build allyesconfig
on lots of diff arch's etc to test the theory though.

> Not only do I hate the keyword volatile, but the barrier is only a
> one-sided affair so its probable this is going to have slightly
> different allowed reorderings than a real volatile access.

True ...

> Also, why would you want to make these insane accessors for atomic_t
> types? Just make sure everybody knows the basics of barriers, and they
> can apply that knowledge to atomic_t and all other lockless memory
> accesses as well.

Code that looks like:

	while (!atomic_read(&v)) {
		...
		cpu_relax_no_barrier();
		forget(v.counter);
		        ^^^^^^^^
	}

would be uglier. Also think about code such as:

	a = atomic_read();
	if (!a)
		do_something();

	forget();
	a = atomic_read();
	... /* some code that depends on value of a, obviously */

	forget();
	a = atomic_read();
	...

So much explicit sprinkling of "forget()" looks ugly.

	atomic_read_volatile()

on the other hand, looks neater. The "_volatile()" suffix makes it also
no less explicit than an explicit barrier-like macro that this primitive
is something "special", for code clarity purposes.

> > #define forget(a)	__asm__ __volatile__ ("" :"=m" (a) :"m" (a))
> 
> I like order(x) better, but it's not the most perfect name either.

forget(x) is just a stupid-placeholder-for-a-better-name. order(x) sounds
good but we could leave quibbling about function or macro names for later,
this thread is noisy as it is :-)
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